Sunday, June 14, 2015

Hey everybody! I am participating in a book meme called the Sunday Post
which is being hosted by Kimba the
Caffeinated Book Reviewer! The goal of this meme is to share news you have
on various books and things you’ve read or received and also talk about what is
coming up for your blog! Book hauls can include library books, yard sale finds,
arcs and bought books and you can share these finds with other book bloggers!

Hey everyone! It's me, Ronyell... I know it's been awhile since I've done a Sunday Post because of my new job and how it was caving in my private reading time, but now I'm trying to play catch up with my Sunday Posts and luckily I have been getting on to reading more books this time around, especially since my local library is hosting a Summer Reading Challenge! This month, I had read many good books and now I want to share them with my fellow bloggers!

Move over “SAGA,” a new brand of
witty and fun loving storytelling has arrived!

Well, I still love Brian K. Vaughan’s “Saga” series, but
after reading this first volume of “Rat
Queens Volume One: Sass and Sorcery” by Kurtis J. Wiebe along with artwork by Roc Upchurch, this series has moved up a slot on my most favorite
comic book series of all time, with “Saga”
still being at the top of the list!

What is this story
about?

Meet the Rat Queens, a group of strong and high spirited young
women who get involved in various battles whenever they are hired to do
so.The members of this crazy group are
Hannah the Rockabilly Elven Mage who is the leader of the group, Violet the
Hipster Dwarven Fighter who is second in command, Dee the Atheist Human Cleric
and Betty the Hippy Smidgen Thief who is like the funniest member of the group.This rambunctious group of female fighters
will do battle with anyone, however they will soon find out that there is a
conspiracy going on in their town that might change their lives forever once
they discover the secrets of the conspiracy!

What I loved about
this story:

Kurtis J. Wiebe’s writing: Wow…just wow… I never
would have thought that I would read another comic book that was as exciting and
creative as “Saga” was, but man did “Rat Queens” took me by surprise and in
an extremely good way!Kurtis J. Wiebe’s writing was truly
witty and fantastic to read as I was literally laughing at all the sarcastic dialogue
between the characters, especially between the Rat Queens and it really gave
this volume a comical edge to the intense battle sequences.I also loved the fact that Kurtis J. Wiebe made this series
reminiscent to the “Dungeons and Dragons”
series with the main characters using all kinds of sorcery and sword fighting
to defeat their foes in battle, while also combing the sarcastic wit and female
empowerment of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
into the story.I also loved the fact
that the Rat Queens are diverse characters as we have Dee who is a Black Human
Cleric, Violet who is a White Dwarven Fighter and Betty who is a Homosexual
Smidgen Thief and it really rounds out the characters extremely well and brings
a lot of dimension to the story.I also
loved the fact that we have a comic book that has a group of strong female
protagonists (even though this has been done a dozen times over in comic books
like “X-Men” and “Birds of Prey”) and each character
really bring out something interesting to the storyline, with my favorite
character so far being Betty the Smidgen Thief as she is the comic relief of
the group!

Roc Upchurch’s artwork: Roc
Upchurch’s artwork was amazing as the sorcery world that the Rat Queens
live in is extremely creative and detailed and I really love the ancient
technology that the girls use in this universe as it gives you a sort of
Renaissance feel to the whole experience.I also loved the way that Roc
Upchurch drew each Rat Queen character as they all have outfits that
distinguish them from each other like Dee is always wearing a purple flowing
skirt and Betty is wearing an old thief’s outfit.

What made me feel
uncomfortable about this story:

For anyone who does not like gory violence and strong
language, this volume does contain many scenes where characters are smash to
death and you can see their blood and guts all over the ground.Also, this volume contains strong language
such as the use of the “s” word and the “f” word many times over.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “Rat Queens
Volume One: Sass and Sorcery” is definitely one comic book that you ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, and TRULY must
seek out at all costs as it is filled with some awesome battle sequences and
character interactions that you cannot miss!Now, I am off to read the second volume of this fantastic series!

Alright, so most of my book friends have been begging me for
years to check out Sarah J. Maas’
fantastic “Throne of Glass” series
and I finally got the chance to check out the prequel to the “Throne of Glass” series, “The Assassin’s Blade” and man was it
worth checking out!

This book is basically a collection of stories that detail
Celaena Sardothien’s adventures before the “Throne
of Glass” series and the stories included in this book are:

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord

The Assassin and the Healer

The Assassin and the Desert

The Assassin and the Underworld

The Assassin and the Empire

This book basically details Celaena Sardothien’s adventures
as a world renowned assassin under the roof of Arobynn Hamel, the leader of the
ruthless Assassins’ Guild.Celaena
believed that her life was perfect as she was known as the best assassin in
Arobynn’s Assassin’s Guild, until one day, she decided to defy her master Arobynn
when she released the slaves from Skull’s Bay and ends up paying a heavy
price.So, Celaena ends up spending some
time in the desert to retrain herself in the art of assassination and those
months at the desert had ended up changing her life forever as Celaena will soon
learn about the true meaning of love, trust and betrayal.

Wow! How could I wait this long to actually check this
series out?After I heard so many good
things about Sarah J. Maas’ “Throne of
Glass” series, I just had to check this prequel out and I sure was glad
that I did check this book out as I got to know more about Celaena as a
character and what her life was like before the events of the first “Throne of Glass” book.I loved the way that Sarah J. Maas wrote the characters and the action sequences in this
book as they complement each other extremely well and I was literally sitting
on the edge of my seat trying to see if Celaena will get out of the dangerous
situations that she is often thrown in.Probably the best things about this book were the characters themselves
as they were truly enjoyable to read and I often found myself sympathizing with
their reactions in certain situations, especially Celaena.Celaena Sardothien is a truly amazing heroine
as she is tough and charismatic about her assassin abilities and I loved the
scenes where Celaena shows her deadly assassin abilities by taking down all of
her opponents without breaking a sweat!I
also loved Celaena’s relationship with Sam as they started out as rivals to
each other and then as the story goes on, their relationship starts to develop
in ways that were beautiful and hilarious and I was rooting for these two to
get together throughout the whole book!

For anyone who does not like strong language, this book does
have a surprising amount of strong languages littered throughout including the “s”
word and the “f” word.

Overall, “The
Assassin’s Blade” is a fantastic book for anyone who loves reading about
strong female protagonists and I will definitely check out the rest of the “Throne of Glass” series soon!

“The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” is the fourth book made in Beatrix Potter’s “Peter Rabbit” books and it is about how Peter’s cousin Benjamin convinces Peter to come to Mr. McGregor’s garden to get Peter’s clothes back. “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” is a truly memorable follow up to the classic tale “Peter Rabbit.”

The book starts off with Benjamin Bunny watching Mr. and Mrs. McGregor going out for the day and he decided to get his cousin Peter to come along with him to Mr. McGregor’s garden to get Peter’s clothes back.

Oh my goodness! Beatrix Potter has certainly outdone herself in this classic follow up to the ever popular children’s book “The Tale of Peter Rabbit.” Beatrix Potter’s writing is extremely cute and interesting as it details Peter and Benjamin’s adventures in Mr. McGregor’s garden. I loved how the role of “mischievous little troublemaker” is switched to Benjamin Bunny instead of Peter Rabbit as Peter is constantly shown as being afraid in ever image. Since I have read “ The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” I cannot really blame Peter for being so jumpy after the scare he had when he went to Mr. McGregor’s garden and I personally would have been scared too if I went back to a place that scared the daylights out of me. It was interesting seeing another character who was as naughty as Peter was and what made Benjamin into such an endearing character was that he remained optimistic about the situation. Beatrix Potter's illustrations are extremely cute as most of the main characters are animals. My favorite illustrations were of the mice cracking cherry stones as they look extremely realistic yet cute at the same time as they huddled up next to each other and looked so adorable eating the cherry stones.

Overall, “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” is a truly cute and wonderful classic tale from Beatrix Potter about the consequences of being naughty! I would recommend this book to children ages three and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.

After reading the fourth volume of Rumiko Takahashi’s new series “Rin-Ne” and being introduced to
Rinne’s deadbeat father Sabato Rokudo, I was truly interested in learning more
about Sabato and his turbulent relationship with Rinne.Now, we have a new love interest in this
volume named Ageha, who also happens to be a Shinigami girl who might give
Rinne a run for his money in terms of competing with him in taking the souls
back to the afterlife!

After defeating his father in the last volume, Rinne then meets up with a
mysterious Shinigami girl named Ageha, who is out for vengeance against the
president of the Damashigami Company, who she claims had kidnapped her sister
years ago.Little does Ageha know, Rinne
happens to be the son of the president of the Damashigami Company and Rinne
decides to withhold this secret from Ageha.Not only that, but it turns out that Ageha has feelings for Rinne, but
Rinne is still trying to sort out his feelings for Sakura Mamiya.

Will Rinne
choose either Ageha or Sakura and will Ageha find out about Rinne’s terrible
secret regarding his father?

Read this
volume to find out!

Now, the moment that a new love interest was introduced in this volume, I
knew that Rumiko Takahashi’s signature style in having many suitors for
the main characters was going to show up in this series!I loved the fact that we are introduced to a
female Shinigami in this volume as it makes things even more interesting for
Rinne and Sakura.It was great seeing
another Shinigami in this universe besides Rinne and now it seems that we are
about to have a major story arc unfold in this universe that involves the evil
Damashigami Company and everyone’s efforts to bring the company down.I also loved the way that Rumiko
Takahashi focused more on Rinne and Sakura’s relationship in this volume as their
relationship with each other seems a bit different than what we normally seen
in Rumiko Takahashi’s works as they are not constantly at each other’s
throats as we usually see them trying to sort out their feelings for each other
and trying to see how their relationship will go in the future (in other words,
as far as I could see, this is probably the most mature relationship shown in Rumiko
Takahashi’s works so far). Rumiko
Takahashi’s artwork is just as impressive as in the previous volumes as the
characters look both cute and impressive and I really enjoy the fight scenes
between Rinne and the citizens of the afterlife as they are truly stylized and
exciting to see!

For anyone who does not like language in a manga, there is some language
in this volume such as the use of the “d” word, although it is not as bad as
some of the more mature manga.

Overall, “Rin-Ne Volume Five” is a fantastic volume for anyone who is
interested in Rumiko Takahashi’s
“Rin-Ne” series and I definitely cannot wait to check out the rest of this
series in the near future!

Follow me by Email!

Followers

Follow me on Networked Blogs!

My Linky Followers!

About Me!

Hello! I'm Ronyell and anyone who wants to be my friend is free to become friends with me! Also, I love followers on my blog, since I have so many great things to talk about the various books I read from time to time. I love to read, exercise, sleep and surf on the internet, with reading being my most favorite activity.
I also have a blog website dedicated to Rabbit Ears at:
www.rabbitearsblog.webs.com